🧭 Understanding Pending Dispositions in Microsoft Purview Records Management

🎯 Introduction

In today’s data-driven organizations, managing the full lifecycle of information is critical — not just for efficiency, but for compliance and risk reduction.
Microsoft Purview Records Management enables organizations to automate how content is classified, retained, and permanently disposed of — in line with legal, regulatory, and business requirements.

One key feature within this capability is Pending Dispositions — the final checkpoint before data is permanently deleted from Microsoft 365.

🧩 What Are Pending Dispositions?

When a retention label or policy reaches the end of its retention period, Microsoft Purview doesn’t immediately delete the content.
Instead, it moves the items into a disposition review stage. This ensures that records managers can verify that the content is no longer needed before it’s deleted forever.

The Pending Dispositions section of the Records Management overview page gives you a real-time snapshot of these items.

📊 The Overview Page Explained

When you navigate to

Microsoft Purview → Solutions → Records Management → Overview

you’ll see two main components:

🟦 1. Pending Dispositions

This section lists all items waiting for review.
Each entry includes:

Source Policy / Label — the retention configuration that applied to the content (e.g., Retention Label C).
Item Count — the number of items currently awaiting review.

If the count is zero, it means there’s no content pending deletion yet.
When items appear, compliance officers can review, extend, or confirm deletion before the process is finalized.

🟩 2. Label Application Activity

This section summarizes how and where retention labels have been applied across Microsoft 365 workloads such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, and Teams.
It’s particularly useful to confirm that your labeling strategy is working as intended.

⚙️ How the Process Works

A retention label or policy (for example, Retention Label C) is applied to items in SharePoint or OneDrive.
The retention period expires (e.g., after 7 years).
Items move into disposition review — they’re no longer active but not yet deleted.
A records manager reviews the items in the Pending Dispositions list.
Approved items are permanently deleted — ensuring defensible, auditable removal of data.

🧱 Records Management vs. Data Lifecycle Management

It’s common to confuse Records Management with Data Lifecycle Management (DLM), but they serve different purposes:

Feature	Data Lifecycle Management	Records Management
Focus	Automating general data retention & deletion	Managing formal business records
Event-based retention	❌	✅
Disposition review	❌	✅
Proof of deletion	❌	✅
Legal hold integration	Basic	Advanced

Records Management extends DLM by providing manual oversight and audit-ready governance for regulated industries.

🧭 Best Practices

Recommendation	Why It Matters
Define clear file plans	Helps organize retention labels by department, regulation, and business process.
Enable disposition reviews only for high-value content	Avoid unnecessary manual work for routine data.
Assign reviewers in compliance roles	Ensures accountability and separation of duties.
Document every deletion decision	Supports legal defensibility and audit requirements.
Regularly check the Overview dashboard	Keeps compliance teams aware of pending actions.

🔐 Licensing Requirements

Records Management is included in Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance or the Microsoft Purview Suite.
These licenses unlock advanced features such as event-based retention, disposition reviews, proof of deletion, and file-plan descriptors.

💼 Real-World Scenario

A global bank retains financial documents for 7 years.
When the retention period expires:

The items move into Pending Dispositions.
The records manager reviews the files to confirm that no legal hold or audit requirement is active.
Once approved, the documents are permanently deleted — and Purview logs the decision for auditing.

This ensures compliance with both internal policies and external regulations like SOX or GDPR.

✅ Conclusion

Microsoft Purview Records Management provides the control and transparency organizations need to securely manage content throughout its lifecycle.
The Pending Dispositions feature ensures that no record is deleted without proper authorization — combining automation with human oversight.